Known in the art is an internal, combustion engine which is provided with an exhaust gas recirculation system for causing exhaust gas exhausted into an engine exhaust passage to be recirculated inside of an intake passage, in which an exhaust purification catalyst is arranged in an engine exhaust passage and a hydrocarbon feed valve is arranged upstream of the exhaust purification catalyst in the engine exhaust passage, a precious metal catalyst is carried on an exhaust gas flow surface of the exhaust purification catalyst and a basic exhaust gas flow surface part is formed around the precious metal catalyst, and hydrocarbons are injected from the hydrocarbon feed valve by a predetermined period at the time of engine operation to thereby remove the NOx which is contained in the exhaust gas (for example, see PTL 1). In this internal combustion engine, even if the temperature of the exhaust purification catalyst becomes high, a high NOx purification rate can be obtained.